Dear Reader,

Hello.  I have been encouraged to make posts more often and so I will try.  Yesterday in Skopje I learned that the bus to Tirana only leaves every-other day; so I had to leave last night.  One trip from Skopje into Albania will make you realize just how difficult it would be logistically to move an army over this terrain, and why there are not more roads and railway lines in the area.  We took a route which must have been devised originally by hunters tracking a very wild animal.  

I had the good fortune of sharing this trip with a man named Eugen.  While standing at the bus station in Skopje, we attempted making conversation, but I soon realized that Eugen and I have no language in common.  Mostly he would return my words with unblinking eyes; as though I had his attention and he was waiting for me to stop clearing my throat before I began addressing him properly.  Once we stopped trying to talk, communication was relatively easy.  

There are two ways to cross into Albania from Macedonia, one to the north and one to the south.  The southern route past Lake Ohrid is the one we took.  I am told that Lake Ohrid is the most beautiful part of Macedonia.  Our 7PM departure brought us past the lake at around 11PM, so we couldn’t see anything.  Like so many things I’ve nearly seen so far on this trip, maybe I’ll make it back some day.  At the border there were 26 of us on the bus until the border police took one man off.  He never got back on, and we ended up leaving him there with security.  No one seemed alarmed by this. 

The bus finally arrived in Tirana at around 3:45 this morning and so, I am here in Albania writing to you.  The driver from the school picked me up from the cafe I had been taken to after getting off the bus.  The school is where I will be staying once I arrive for good on the 18th.  The school is located on a hillside where every square meter that doesn’t have a house on it is either wild with trees, or has been manicured for farming.  The people are lovely here, of course they are.  I plan to leave for the port city of Duress tonight so that I can catch the ferry to Bari.  Durres is rumored to have been one of the places that Saint Paul came to.  It has been a city for over 2000 years.  I am excited as you can well imagine.  We’ll talk soon.  Love,

Joshua 

Dear Reader,

Hello.  It is good to take a minute for typing out my thoughts and sharing them at least with my computer.  I am in Skopje, Macedonia.  I arrived here at around 10PM local time.  I had booked a night at a hostel on Mother Teresa Avenue.  I gave the address to my taxi driver at the bus station and he said “OK, OK no problem, of course I know where this is.”  Made confident by his self-confidence I got in and he dropped me at a plaza, telling me to walk ahead maybe 30 meters and it would be on my right.  Around 30 meters later, I saw it: Memorial House of Mother Teresa.  This cobble-stone faced three-story structure built in the memory of Mother Teresa is beautiful.  This lovely house to the saintly Albanian woman is not, however, a hostel.  The security guard who works there, along with a friend of his, were able to get me sorted out, and I arrived safely at Urban Hostel at around 11PM.  

The people here are warm, friendly, kind, and cheerful.  They seem happy and I’ve noticed a rare empathy in the conversations I’ve shared.  Mostly, I am embarrassed because I don’t know any Macedonian words, and they in turn seem to be embarrassed with me.  I am finding this phenomena to be quite common.  As a result I feel an almost immediate kinship with the friendly faces I see around; it is quite remarkable.  

I found out this morning that I won’t be staying here another night because I need to be in Tirana sometime tomorrow and there is only one bus every-other day.  That bus departs Skopje at 7PM tonight.  I hope to make it back here sometime to spend more time with these people.  They’ve got a really great energy and the city seems alive and thriving.  Thank you for reading, and I wish you well.  Love,

Joshua

Dear Reader,

Hello.  I am writing to you from a Hostel in Sofia Bulgaria.  I arrived safely from New York via London at about 2PM local time.  I don’t plan to be back on Seattle time until sometime in winter.  

The last friend I saw was in the States was Stacey Carpenter.  She had been my most generous host in New York City for the four days leading up to my departure.  Thanks Stacey, you are a good friend.  

Mostly this post is to announce that I’ve made it to Europe.  I am going to go out now and find some food and some sights to take in.  Love,

Joshua

Since arriving in New York two days ago, I’ve had the opportunity to meet quite a few people.  Most everyone seems to have a tie either to Latin America or Eastern Europe.  I met an artist named Roy who’s grandmother emigrated from Yugoslavia, and a woman named Vanessa who is ethnically Dalmatian.  They were both kind and generous to sit with me and share about their lives.  Roy prayed over me, Vanessa and I shared table at a pizza stop.  

Today I am planning to meet an Albanian waiter in Little Italy at noon.  I met him last night at dinner.  He wants to introduce me to another waiter who works near by who was a professor in Albania before immigrating to New York.  New York is one of the places that Albanians chose to settle after the fall of Communism in the Soviet Block gave the citizenry of her neighbors more life options.  

I will let you know where this leads.  Love,

Joshua

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